“The king will, on his restoration,” said Kunigunde, “assuredly rally round him the respect and power of the nation.”
“The respect is of small importance without strength. A man, like a nation, is respected in proportion as he is feared,” answered Zawis. “Such a source of command as platonic authority, resting on mere sentiment, never did enforce order or obedience; certainly not in Bohemia. Authority can only be enforced even by the strongest, by a spirit of equity and the equalization of the burdens of life. Men will claim, and they are entitled to, equality before the law, whereof the prince is only the representative in this kingdom. No class of men in this land, or of our stock, will ever long be content, like some in Asia, to be the bearers of burdens for any other. That is the true Bohemian mind. Oppression creates deception, cunning, fraud, and violence against the eppressor. To sustain this principle during the confusion that confronts us will require wisdom indeed.”
“Assuredly, my dear lord,” interposed Kunigunde, “our institutions have acquired sufficient stability to survive our present troubles.”
“The best law will never enforce itself,” answered Zawis, “unless the opinion of the nation coincides with it. Unhappily opinion is too often swayed by self-interest; and a political party is being sedulously formed now by the emperor’s adherents whose purpose is to substitute imperial power and Roman ascendency for the ancient law that has created Bohemian nationality. In politics we are to be an integral
